Fundraiser | Speaker | Trainer | Writer | Teacher & Coach | Data Champion
“What is Fundraising?”
That’s the question that launched this blog and an ongoing personal quest to define what it is we, as fundraisers, do and why we do it.
After nearly 20 years in fundraising, when I was asked “What’s the big deal about fundraising?” I couldn’t answer it. Not in a way that could satisfy me or define our work in a way that differentiated it from other professions.
I’ve worked as both a front line fundraiser and as a consultant since 1990. My first jobs were right on the cusp of moving from 3 x 5 cards and paper files to CRMs and databases. I built one of the very first online giving platforms for what is now a major fundraising data company. I’ve done the major gift ask, managed successful capital campaigns, built endowments from scratch, secured a few planned gifts and run a whole bunch of annual funds.
I live at the intersection of process and passion. It takes strong data and functional infrastructure to support amazing, donor-centered fundraising.
And I’m deeply in love with the $50 donor. For many, that “Annual Fund” commitment is just as much a major gift as the ones that get people’s names carved into buildings.
So, what is fundraising? People. Connections. Passions. It’s seeing that the world can be a little brighter, a little better and making the connections that make that happen.
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